Sam Powers Email & Phone Number

Washington, DC, US

Washington, District Of Columbia, United States

Washington, United States

• I provide data science and technical product management expertise to help the Social Security Administration improve their analytics and customer facing technology. On this team I:
• Created technical roadmap and advised development to productize LLM & predictive analytics data pipeline to create repeated topic model analysis while balancing cost, speed, and accuracy
• Helped R&D and implement LLM analyses of call center transcripts to understand why users call the National 800 Number Hot Line
• Spearheaded quantitative research in month-long discovery sprint to identify opportunities to improve customer interaction of changing address at SSA
• Advise SSA senior leaders on better aligning metrics with desired outcomes
• Convene, manage, and facilitate group of 15 data analysts and policy experts to iteratively improve SSA's analysis and reporting on Interactive Voice Response phone system

Washington, District Of Columbia, United States

Washington, District Of Columbia, United States

Washington DC

• I provided data science expertise to help advance the Justice40 program's mission of ensuring that at least 40% of certain federal investments are directed towards disadvantaged communities. On this team I:
• Roadmapped the product release for v2 of the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool for contractor team
• Conducted psychometric experiments and simulations to design & evaluate several prioritization metrics
• Communicated technical concepts to senior government stakeholders in plain-language to choose between several measurement options
• Provided expert advise on algorithmic usage in government
• Updated a data pipeline (built using Python and Pandas)

Washington DC-Baltimore Area

Serve as chief quantitative methodologist in Office of Policy, Planning, & Liaison focusing on issues of historical inequities in government contracting and grant making for small businesses.

Washington DC-Baltimore Area

Used data science techniques to assist PRAC investigators and data team in over $5T in grants, loans, and contracts invested by US government in COVID-19 Response. Developed statistical indicators for risk model for automated fraud and waste detection in government grant making. Briefed non technical fraud subject matter expert collaborators to refine.

Charlottesville, Virginia, United States

• Co-created new community-engaged analytics practice at UVA Equity Center, setting foundation for future years' work
• Managed portfolio of quantitative research & work with a variety of community partners to document inequities in Charlottesville, VA, & USA social systems & change policy
• Projects ranged from investigating racial inequity in cville stop and frisk practices with local journalists to creating resources to assist food service orgs in equitable COVID-19 response, to creating equity.
• Created partnerships & drove tangible outcomes from research including city adoption of COVID-19 workers’ bill of rights & UVA Racial Equity Taskforce analysis of historical activism trends.

Charlottesville, Virginia Area

Serve as chief statistical and programming consultant for Hospital HIV Policy lab & National Alliance of State& Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD). Coordinate undergraduate students and provide statistical and computational advice for their projects while maintaining portfolio of my own.Manage hundreds of gigabytes of hospitalization data from the Agency.

Kigali, Rwanda

• Used public records & personal interviews to test hypothesis that UN’s aggregate-level evaluation metrics for the SDGs overlook social & demographic factors, perpetuating inequities
• Designed dashboards & trainings to pilot use of data visualization in centering equity in policy
• Lectured at National Institute of Statistics, African Center of Excellence in Data Science, & Institute of Conservation Agriculture on data communication & community engagement
• Awarded 2019 Kriesberg Fellowship, prize for excellence in research & community service given to one Fulbright researcher globally each year